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First taste of the sky


toto
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 Another old saying still in use " Carry the can" This one comes from the Coastguard when it was an armed service. [ there were a couple of of times I wished the Cutlass was still issued during my service]:classic_biggrin:

Guarding the coast mostly against smugglers and the rescue of sailors who's ships had floundered on the coast/rocks.

  Coastguard men would patrol a section of coast on foot and sometimes on horseback.

   The officer at their station would issue the "CAN" into which tokens were placed, these were handed to the officer at the next station along the coast as proof the men had done their duty and completed the patrol. 

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Don't store your lipo batteries in the house Toto unless you keep them in a ammo box.  I have mine inside a large ammo box .  Back in 2007 our house was severely burned and my elderly Aunt was lucky to escape with her life due to a faulty lipo battery exploding.  We were out of our house for five whole months while our home was rebuilt.  They must be treated with respect,  but as long as they as safely stored you will have no problem. 

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Well .... at least you are in the right place if any lipo explosions cause any change in your bowel status. .... clever thinking. :classic_biggrin:

 

Just about to have my tea .... and then .... shed bound. 

 

Gardy loo.

 

Toto

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So ..... back in the igloo ..... erm .... I mean shed.

 

re-centred my Domino rudder -  nosewheel servo. It looks like it should track straight from now on ....... one task down.

 

Well through charging my 4s Domino batteries ... should be completed that soon .... then move on to my Tasman batteries .... just a top up I suspect.

 

That will see the Domino ready for tomorrow .... it can get packed into the car ( minus batteries ) which will save me some messing around in the morning.

 

Back with reports on the Tasmans progression soon.

 

cheers

 

toto 

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Guaranteed no rain until at least late afternoon. 

 

potential for up to 16mph crosswinds. temperature milder than it has been over the last couple of days.

 

If the winds are too strong ..... we wont fly but will make use of the time checking model settings and ironing out any small servo adjustments etc on the Tasman. The Domino is pretty much there apart from the nose wheel being slightly out which I think I have solved with a bit of tinkering and servo resetting.

 

I'm happy to do some indoor stuff in our flying shed if flying is not possible. either way ..... its a hobby day with good company.

 

cheers

 

toto

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1 hour ago, toto said:

Guaranteed no rain until at least late afternoon. 

 

potential for up to 16mph crosswinds. temperature milder than it has been over the last couple of days.

 

If the winds are too strong ..... we wont fly but will make use of the time checking model settings and ironing out any small servo adjustments etc on the Tasman. The Domino is pretty much there apart from the nose wheel being slightly out which I think I have solved with a bit of tinkering and servo resetting.

 

I'm happy to do some indoor stuff in our flying shed if flying is not possible. either way ..... its a hobby day with good company.

 

cheers

 

toto

Ah. Earlier in the week the forecast was worse so I wouldn't want you to charge, then discharge lots of batteries unnecessarily....

 

Fingers crossed for progress in one way or another.

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42 minutes ago, toto said:

Hi PatMc

 

I did not realise that had to be done ....... so the short answer ...... no.

 

and the ramifications of that could be ....... 

 

toto

The ESC motor control would not necessarily respond correctly to the full throttle stick range.

I've never used an Overlander ESC but if it's a re-badged Hobbywing the calibration instructions (May be titled something like "throttle range settings) are simple, clear & take just a few seconds.    

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Hi PatMc,

 

Absolutely correct. The TX and the ESC had to be recalibrated which was successfully completed at the field today.

 

A day of two halves though. .... ESC recalibrated and I had to pay a little more attention to the nose wheel which seems to be drifting. We altered the connection to the servo .... several times but no final satisfactory result. I think it could be the grub screw in the steering linkage but I'll need to take the motor out I  order to get to it. ..... that's for later. There was worse to come.

 

After we finished doing the above, we went to get the first flight in and when I switched the NX8 on ..... the whole screen turned red with a major fault warning. It stated 4 steps that had to be u undertaken.... one of which is a software update to the sim card which of course has to be downloaded at home. 

 

There were two or three other things .... can't remember what ..... but it looks like a real issue with the NX 8.

 

We ended up having to bind my mentors DX9 to,the model, then binding the NX6 to that in order to get the buddy box system working to two transmitters....... what a day.

 

We managed tel full flights. The first was a bit rough and we ended up altering the dual rates to calm things down a bit after which the second flight was so much smoother.

 

Never a dull moment.

 

So ..... either tonight or later tomorrow I need to download the latest file settings for the NX8 to see if that maybe clears the fault. I may also try it in another model as well to see if it's the same.

 

Never had time to have a play around with the Tasman. No big issue there.

 

 

Toto

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Offend the gods ....... not at all ...... I defy the gods ..... :classic_laugh:

 

I'll be back .... bigger and better as a result of the experience.

 

Tomorrow ..... I need to attempt carrying out a update on the latest TX firmware ..... that's my starting point. 

 

I am surprised that this has happened as the TX was working fine up until switching on for the first time after recalibrating the fresh ESC. 

 

There is something fishy going on here I think ....... more tomorrow.

 

Upwards and onwards.

 

Toto

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3 hours ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said:

You're jinxed Toto, you offended the Gods ?

Not wishing to be unkind @toto but it seems you have been keen on flying a model plane since March last year and you are yet to do a solo take off and land. You say you are in your fifties, so it is not age obstructing you. In my club we have people of all ages bringing a plane, getting advice and instruction, a few having a few crashes (almost all stalls as they don't keep the speed up turning to land) and getting to 'A' standard in a few weeks or a few months.

Do you think it might be easier if you got a Riot so you could just put a battery and receiver in it and not worry about technical things? As I say, I'm not being unkind, it just seems so convoluted for you when some people just buy a park flyer and fly it.

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1 minute ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said:

I was just joking, Toto will get there, he ain't a quitter.

I'm sure he will, but my goodness, I've just looked through this thread and I'm thinking: why he doesn't just get a hack plane and learn to fly, and leave all this tackle tinkering for another day?

Though maybe he has been let down by instructors.

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46 minutes ago, Arthur Harris said:

Not wishing to be unkind @toto but it seems you have been keen on flying a model plane since March last year and you are yet to do a solo take off and land. You say you are in your fifties, so it is not age obstructing you. In my club we have people of all ages bringing a plane, getting advice and instruction, a few having a few crashes (almost all stalls as they don't keep the speed up turning to land) and getting to 'A' standard in a few weeks or a few months.

Do you think it might be easier if you got a Riot so you could just put a battery and receiver in it and not worry about technical things? As I say, I'm not being unkind, it just seems so convoluted for you when some people just buy a park flyer and fly it.

Rather unkind Arthur.   We are all different in how we approach things.  Also, few clubs allow complete beginners to teach themselves by crashing.  That's not safe for the other club members.

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7 hours ago, Peter Jenkins said:

Rather unkind Arthur.   We are all different in how we approach things.  Also, few clubs allow complete beginners to teach themselves by crashing.  That's not safe for the other club members.

Yeah, I wasn't sure. I will ask @john stones 1 - Moderator if he would consider deleting my post. From my reading of this thread, it seems toto isn't getting much actual flying, and I think that may be down to the amount of tuition he receives. In my club non-instructors will stand with a beginner (if asked), take their plane up and trim it, and let the beginner get a feel of the plane before taking over again. It prevents the wait for the coincidence of good weather, time to go to the field, and an instructor being free.  Feel free to delete, John.

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Hi Arthur, 

 

No worries .... no need to delete the post .... there maybe is a certain amount of validity in your post. I'd agree that I could have probably picked an easier route ..... certainly with regards to model choice.

 

However ..... read the thread again as there has been many circumstances which unfortunately have been out with my control.

 

Weather has played a reasonable part throughout, inconsistency of instructors and availability, the fact I only have weekends to fly as I work full time, and then ...... technical failures ...... ESC's in particular, not being able to get reliability from IC units ( which for the time being ...... I have put on the back burner ) and now .... transmitter issues.

 

You are correct from the point of view that I could have maybe picked an easier route in terms of trainer selection though ..... get a foamy , bung in a RX and a battery ...... and away you go ...... or at least in theory.

 

My FMS Beaver would disagree with you there though ....... as that is grounded as a result of the horizontal stabilisor failing  .... whilst in the hands of a compotent instructor .... and I am convinced ..... at no fault of his. On inspection I think there was a slight flaw in the foam. ...... coupled with the fact you cant get spares ( for the last 6 months or so ).

 

I would be very hesitant to blame any of my instructors are they are all very compotent flyers. I believe my current instructor is gold dust as he is an excellent flyer with huge knowledge and copious amounts of patience. I feel very lucky to have him.

 

I maybe come over as being a bit blaze at times but I need to adopt that dont give a crap attitude because if you didn't laugh .... you would cry. Sometimes ..... if it wasn't for bad luck ...... I'd have no luck at all ....... but I'm determined to get there.

 

As I said ...... no issue with your post ...... I'm sure there will be many similar opinions out there, yours is just one and you are entitled to it.

 

Watch this space.

 

Toto

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